Spring cleaning for more than homes

Do you want a role in beautifying downtown Silver City in preparation for the town’s busy tourism season? That very opportunity presents itself this Saturday, as the Silver City MainStreet Project seeks volunteers to help with a downtown-wide cleanup day.

“We’re headed into this very, very busy month of April with Continental Divide Trail Days, then the Tour of the Gila and Blues Fest,” said MainStreet Manager Lucy Whitmarsh. “It’s going to be a very busy season, so we want our town to sparkle.”

Volunteers are invited to meet at the Silver City Visitor Center at 9 a.m. Saturday, where they will be given scrub brushes, buckets, trash bags, and reaching trash pickers should they want them. They may help as the volunteers join MainStreet in applying a wide swath of elbow grease to the Historic Downtown.

The goal is to not only clear and dispose of debris and garbage, but clean and scrub the receptacle into which that trash should have gone in the first place.

“The tops of the trash cans get real ratty-looking because, well, they’re trash cans,” Whitmarsh said. “We’re going to clean those and other things, like the bottom of light poles that get dingy throughout the year.”

Cleanup will last until noon. Any volunteers who need them will have to bring their own gloves, sunscreen or hats, as MainStreet does not have enough.

“It is a great kickoff to the spring and the tourist season,” said Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown. “With all the events, it is a huge job to clean up, not only before, but afterward. We have to hire additional personnel for the Parks and Streets departments just to keep up. And they take a lot of pride in what they do. Sometimes you won’t realize there was an event the next day because they do so well.”

So, there is plenty to do.

Whitmarsh said that should MainStreet and volunteers not finish their work on Saturday, they will likely schedule an additional day.